Marvel Two-In-One #69 (1980)

I’m sure there’s a story behind Mark and Ralph teaming up to write so many scripts together, but I can’t help feeling like Macchio weakens Gruenwald, whose best work seems to be his solo work. Unlike Thing, who is much better with the Fantastic Four than on his own. Which is why I like the opening sequence of this issue so much.

Ben is cooking pancakes and Franklin loses his Human Torch figure under the stove, so Thing lifts the stove up so Franklin can get it. And their stove is not attached to anything—no electric or gas hook up.

I’m assuming that’s because Mr. Fantastic is a super genius and invented a cool stove.

The rest of this story is a headache. Starhawk of the Guardians of the Galaxy comes back to the past from the future to tell Thing that something is wrong in the timeline because of all the times they’ve been going back and forth with the future.

So, in other words, they’re repeating the problem to fix the problem.

It creates a major “storm” (which is just black fog), which alerts all kinds of folks. The entire F4, Captain America and the Vision, and Storm of the X-Men are all caught up in it. Even if it’s just a panel each. Because cameos are what made 1980s Marvel fun!

Actually, it turns out that the time storm is because of Major Victory who has gone back in time to speak to the young version of Vance Astro because…He’s him! It turns out Major Victory is an old man version of Vance Astro, which means he’s on the same team as himself.

Yes, time travel is hopelessly confusing. But it allows Mark Gruenwald to do what he does best and create convoluted answers for apparent problems in Marvel continuity, which this story accomplishes. I can’t explain it because it’s way too complicated, so you’ll have to read for youself or just trust me.